MAN’S MIND

Hokitika Guardian, 12 July 1930, Page 6

MAN’S MIND

“MOST VALUABLE”

WORLD MEDICAL CONFER-

ENCE-.

Medical men have begun to attack the problem of mental diseases on a whrld-wide scale for the first time since the mental hygiene movement was started by Clifford W. Beers some 20 .years - ago-, when joe published “A Mind that Found Itself”—a book that has become a classic.

When the first International Conference on Mental Hygiene met" in Washington recently, it marked an importlint step forward in the struggle to check the growth of mental and nervous disorders, which are such a menace to man’s happiness. Specialists inmental disease and mental hygiene came from all over the world. In his opening address, Dr William A. White, superintendent of St. Elizabeth’s Mental Hospital, and one of the foremost authorities oil mental disorders, referred to the large increase in tlie numbers of mental patients and expressed his belief “tliiit mental hygiene in some of its aspects''Avill become,'- as a . necessary result, a part of the regular' curriculum of njedh-al schools, and probably of academic courses ;■ that physicians will rtcbgnise the psychological factor’in disease much more fully ; that, general hospitals will have wards, as tiicy ; are . already beginning to, for tlie reception and care -of acute mental illnesses; that the educational system will be much more keenly alert than if is at- present to determine, the existence among the student body of potential mental disorder; that great executives will become conscious of the part it plays in creating the lost motion in their or-ganisat-ins; and that in all those ways it will be more frequently and effectively identified. It is necessarily to be believed, in conjunction with .these developments that an improved, a more adequate tbereapeutics will, grow up alongside of this increasing number of patients, and that we [, shall continue, to find, as we already do, that a very material percentage- of liabilities can be. converted into assets.

A RADICAL! CHANGE. ... [‘ “Aside from all of these developments, which are not difficult, to foresee, however,” Dr. White . added, “one must believe that the future of. mental disorders, even the immediate, future—the [next twenty-five years—will 'show a very radical change of, attitude on the part of the people at large, and of the medical profession in particular, towards mental ; diseases. 'Along with ,a. broadey, [ljiowlcdge[ of. their significance and a better unuerstandifig. of their meaning there will be a greater tolerance for some of tlieif' symptoms. There will he less inclination to resent, hate, and punish the offender. And society will netiessarily come td - the realisation that mental disease is only an exaggerated form of maladaptation, which ~i.s ,only„, ~another r way"of sating, by the use of a sociological term, unhappiness. . ‘‘People will realise. [th|tt, A the, t mental mechanism involved:, a.re..,.the■...sahib.,■» arid That" all the'''vifnoiis _ forms of men- ' tal disorder; social inefficiency and personal unhappiness, must become the subject not of criticism and resentment, but of scientific study, with a view to their correction or improvement; that they are worthy of such study, as are tlie diseases of the body, and, as a matter of fact from the point of vifew of the most valuable of man’s possessions—bis mind—they are more worthy and important. PRICE PAID FOR CIVILISATION.

“Society will also have to realise that all of these troubles of tlie mind are one of the prjcjgs it lias to pay for civilisation, and inasmuch as itVwiJl not throw away civilisation, and not if it. would, Tt. ; , will gettlie concrete problem of an attempt «$£ as great.an understanding of man byk: himself ns lie lias hitherto gained of;| his environment.” j

Two hundred delegates from fifty - three countries V' attended the conference, and over 2500 persons we-ie piesent at the meeting. Addresses op } tiio subject of mental maladjustment delivered by the leading authorities of in al its protean manifestations were all countries represented, including Sir Malirice Craig (London), Dr. Ferrari (Italy), and Dr. Bouman (Holland). From all accounts’ to hand, the eonfeience would appear to have been highly, successful, and it is expected that the deliberations and the conclusions arrived at will result, not only in a stimulation of interest in, find knowledge of, the problem's- related to mental hvg'ene generally-, but will also benefit the patients concerned, by promoting newer and hotter methods of tieatinent.